Second phase of Aadhaar Approved, Rs. 3,023 Sanctioned

The Government on Thursday approved the second phase of Aadhaar, the scheme to provide unique identity numbers, and sanctioned Rs. 3,023.01 crore for it.

The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India (CCUIDAI) decided that of the sanctioned amount, Rs. 477.11 crore would be for the authority’s recurring establishment expenses and Rs. 2,545.90 crore for meeting nonrecurring project related expenditure.

“The estimated cost includes project components for issuing 10 crore UID numbers by March 2011 and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase of five years, ending March 2014,” an official release said.

The authority, headed by Nandan Nilekani, proposes to issue the first set of 10 crore UID numbers between August 2010 and March 2011. The next lot of 60 crore UID numbers are likely to be issued by 2014.